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Apology to a Whale

THIS WEEK’S OTHER FEATURED BOOK, “RELEASED FROM THE SHADOWS,” BY DONNA CANTOR, CAN BE FOUND BY SCROLLING DOWN BELOW THIS POST, ALONG WITH THE “FIRST TUESDAY REPLAY.” OR, YOU CAN CLICK ON DONNA’S NAME ON OUR AUTHOR PAGE.

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THE BOOK: Apology to a Whale: Words to Mend a World

PUBLISHED IN: 2016

THE AUTHOR: Cecile Pineda

THE EDITOR: Bryce Milligan

THE PUBLISHER: Wings Press, San Antonio, Texas (wingspress.com)

SUMMARY:Apology to a Whale investigates the question: What is it about our culture that is killing life on Earth? The answer will be as big a surprise to the reader as it was to the writer discovering it.

THE BACK STORY: After I published Devil’s Tango: How I learned the Fukushima Step by Step on the first anniversary of the triple meltdown in Japan, I found I wasn’t completely “written out.” The book made me re-discover how much I loved our green and blue planet, and how I marveled at all the unbelievably varied and resourceful forms of life here in this magic garden. I puzzled what lies at the root of ecological destruction.

WHY THIS TITLE?: Humans, who have overmultiplied and pushed all other species towards extinction, need to apologize to all life (including human life), not so much to ask for forgiveness, or even trying to explain, but as an act of reverence for all beings great and small.

WHY SOMEONE WOULD WANT TO READ IT: Anyone who loves Earth, who reveres all living things, who wants to feel inspired, and who has ever asked the question: what is it about this culture that is killing life on our planet?

REVIEW COMMENTS:

“If the first step toward cure is proper diagnosis, with her powerful Apology to a Whale, Cecile Pineda moves us much closer to finding the cure for a culture that is killing the planet.” —Derek Jensen

“In her wonderful Apology to a Whale, Cecile Pineda calls on us to recognize that our view of nature as a resource for our convenience and profit is killing the planet. She calls on us to build our lives and our laws around the need to revere and protect the living earth and all its creatures.” —Maude Barlow

“Unfolding like an ancient book of days, Apology to a Whale contains the insight of a naturalist and the spellbinding stories of a sage…into the lost language of our times. Few writers have the ability to make us see the world in such a different ay, to challenge readers to consider the still small possibility of restorative justice for our planet.” —Jeff Biggers

“Cecile Pineda has the nerve to ask the once simple question that eludes our …posturing. It is the one question that could save us: What has happened to our mind that we are killing our world…? The genus of this book is that the question supersedes the answers and takes us on explorations where we make our own discoveries…. Pineda has the rare capacity to address the big questions without fall into abstractions or sermonizing. It is the artist in her that I trust, that utters so potent a call to persona and collective liberation.” —Joanna Macy

AUTHOR PROFILE: Cecile Pineda has nine books in print. Known primarily for her fiction, she is the winner of the California Commonwealth Club Gold medal, and a nominee for the 2014 Neustadt International Prize.

AUTHOR COMMENTS: “In seeking answers, Apology to a Whale draws on history, pre-history, paleontology, linguistics, archeology and anthropology of the world’s first people. If you love Earth, this work will bring you home.”